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Mayor: 'Gigabit here we come'

Council approves bid for city's fiber network build-out design

Fort Morgan is a step closer to becoming a "gigabit city," and Mayor Ron Shaver could not be happier about it.

"Gigabit here we come," he said after the Fort Morgan City Council awarded a bid for design of the build-out of the city's fiber network at Tuesday night's regular council meeting.

Shaver was the city's utilities director when Fort Morgan first joined with the Re-3 School District and Morgan County to install fiber optic cables under the city as part of the state Beanpole Grant program. But the city's portion of that fiber network had not been used to anywhere close to its potential since that installation.

That was mainly due to it not being connected to very many things coupled with the city's previous reluctance to compete with private business on providing Internet service. But once the fiber connections are built out, it will bring true city-wide, blazing-fast broadband access to Fort Morgan.

Not every Colorado city can become a gigabit city, even if leaders want it to happen.

That's due to a 2005 state law that prevents municipalities from owning and operating enterprises to provide telecommunications service — unless voters say they can.

Fort Morgan voters gave the city that permission by passing a ballot measure in 2009.

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"In 2009, the public voted that they don't want to be fettered by private utilities," City Manager Jeff Wells said. "They wanted to be free for public development of the fiber system."

Now, after a number of starts and stops over about six years, the Fort Morgan City Council is ready to heed the voters' directions and spend the money to turn Fort Morgan into a gigabit city.

Interestingly enough, the council tapped the same company that installed the fiber in the first place to build out the city-wide network.

The $160,305 bid from Manweiler Telecom Consulting, Inc. was the lowest among 12 proposals the city received, but the company also was among the top three unanimously selected by a group of city officials and staff, according to Wells.

The group did in-person interviews with the top three choices, and "one stood out," according to Water Resources/Utilities Director Brent Nation.

"His company designed our system, the fiber we have in the ground," Nation said of Manweiler. "We won't have to bring them up to speed. They're already there."

That familiarity with Fort Morgan's fiber system likely was what allowed Manweiler to factor in fewer hours to be worked and have the lowest bid, Nation said, and it also is a Colorado company.

"That's definitely an advantage," he said.

But the group that ultimately made the recommendation to the council on which bidder to use spent a lot of time going over everything, Wells said.

"There was a lot of discussion, a lot of balancing and weighing between the three," he said. "I think we've come up with the best decision based on a lot of factors."

One of those factors was that Manweiler would do the whole project, not relying on subcontractors for parts of it.

"'There's only one throat to choke. We don't do any subcontracting,'" Wells said a Manweiler representative told him.

Councilman Dan Marler asked why there was such a difference between the high and low bidders on the project — $971,100 down to $160,305.

Nation said that likely was due to the bidders' level of familiarity with both the city and the current in-ground fiber system. Wells agreed, adding that the three bidders that the group had narrowed down to seemed to have spent a little more time understanding Fort Morgan's system and its needs.

With that, the council was ready to vote, and Councilwoman Christine Castoe's resolution to award the bid to Manweiler for spending up to $106,305 on the design of the fiber network build-out passed 6-0, with Councilman Joe Segura Jr. out sick.

The city expects the design to be completed within four months, which would be early August, and then construction on the fiber network build-out could start in early 2017, according to a council memo from Nation.

• Fort Morgan voters approved a ballot measure in 2009 allowing the city to opt-out of a state law preventing municipalities from owning and operating telecommunications provider services, including Internet.

• The city already had a basic fiber network in place, thanks to a 2002 state Beanpole Grant. That network is shared among the city, Morgan County and the Re-3 School District, but the city has not used its portion or built it out to residences and businesses and now is looking to do so.

• In 2015, the Fort Morgan City Council directed city staff to put together a plan for how to build out and use the city's existing fiber network. Staff attended many conferences and trade shows to learn as much as possible about fiber and gigabit cities.

• The city then sought bids for design for the infrastructure of building out the fiber network so that the city's residences and businesses could have gigabit-level broadband Internet connectivity throughout Fort Morgan as soon as possible.

• The council on Tuesday night awarded the bid for that design to Manweiler Telecom Consulting, Inc., which was the low bidder but also was the same company that first installed the fiber optic cables in Fort Morgan.

• The fiber network design is supposed to be completed within four months of the bid award, so by early August, and then construction work likely would start in early 2017, according to a council memo.

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